Red Indians

(of Newfoundland). So called because they daub their skin,
garments, canoes, weapons, and almost everything with red ochre.

“Whether it is merely a custom, or whether they daub their skin with
red ochre to protect it from the attacks of mosquitos and black-flies,
which swarm by myriads in the woods and wilds during the summer, it is
not possible to say.” —Lady Blake: Nineteenth Century, Dec.
1888, p. 905.